Descriptions

Over the last three decades Oregonians have been engaged in a protracted discussion about Marine Spatial Planning. In the last twenty years the discussion has centered on the protection of Oregon’s natural marine resources and has taken on various labels such as marine gardens, conservation areas, marine sanctuary, and marine reserves. In 2008 Oregon’s Ocean Policy Advisory Council called for public proposals for possible marine reserve areas along the Oregon coast. Six areas were selected as potential marine reserve sites. Two of the areas were recommended for designation as pilot marine reserve sites that would take effect July 1, 2011, and one, Cape Arago, would focus on a whole new proposal for OPAC to consider. The remaining three sites were charged with finding consensus on marine reserve sites for the OPAC proposal areas and stakeholder community teams were formed in 2009 to take on this task. This report presents an analysis of the community team site evaluation process, and the potential social and economic effects to ocean dependent stakeholders. The assessment applies a level of effect analysis, based on experiential knowledge and existing information, compared to the originally proposed OPAC boundaries. The analysis of the community teams’ deliberations compares and contrasts each team’s individual journey toward consensus of a site recommendation. The report ends with a summary discussion of how this bottom‐up process meets the recommended standards for successful stakeholder involvement in management.